A labor union (employee association) is an organization of employees formed to advance, through collective action, its members' interests in regard to wages and working conditions.
Labor relations are the continuous relationship between a defined group of employees (represented by a union or association) and management (one or more employers). This relationship includes the negotiation of a written contract concerning pay, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, as well as interpretation and administration of this contract over its period of coverage.
Unions have existed in the United States since the colonial era. A brief history of labor organizations would mention the Knights of Labor (1869), the American Federation of Labor (1886), and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (1935). The AFL and the CIO merged to form the AFL-CIO in 1955.
Three major laws affecting labor–management relations in the United States are the Wagner Act (1935), the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), and the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959). The Wagner Act created the National Labor Relations Board, which protects the employee's right to organize, investigates unfair management or labor practices, and supervises organizing campaigns.
The union structure in the United States consists of four levels: the federation of unions, intermediate, national, and local.
Unions appeal to workers for various reasons: job security, the need to socialize, protection against unsafe or unhealthy working conditions, a communication link to management, and fair wages. Conditions in the workplace most likely to trigger organizing are lack of job security, low wages, hostile supervisory practices, and inadequate benefits.
Organizing is the process of forming a bargaining unit and petitioning the NLRB for recognition. The bargaining unit is two or more employees who share common employment interests and may reasonably be grouped together.
The organizing process includes the authorization card campaign, the certification election, and negotiation of the initial labor agreement.
Unions want union security in order to preserve membership. Different types of shops (restricted, open, agency, preferential, union, and closed) represent various degrees of union security.
Public sector unions first organized during the 1800s at the federal level. State and local government associations were not very evident until the 1960s. Thirty-six percent of all government workers belong to unions.
Collective bargaining is the process by which unions and management establish the terms and conditions of employment.
The steps in the collective bargaining process include prenegotiation, selecting negotiators, developing the bargaining strategy, using the best bargaining tactics, reaching a formal contractual agreement, and ratifying the contract.
A strike is an effort by workers to withhold services so the employer will make greater concessions at the bargaining table.
A lockout is the managerial equivalent of a strike. Management can continue operating with a skeleton crew of managers, shut down the plant, or lock employees out.
Third party techniques that can help create an agreement range from mediation and fact-finding to interest arbitration. Mediation is a continuum of possible techniques that can be used to persuade the parties to resume negotiations. Interest arbitration resolves an impasse by having a neutral third party impose a settlement on the disputing parties.
A grievance is a complaint about an organizational policy, procedure, or managerial practice that creates dissatisfaction or discomfort.
Arbitration is a quasi-judicial process in which the parties agree to submit an unresolvable dispute to a neutral party for binding settlement.
Union membership peaked in the United States in 1955, when 40 percent of the workforce were members. By 2004, membership had fallen to 12 percent.
Unions have a major political influence in many countries around the world.
